Engineering Manager, Avionics
About the rol e
Muon seeks an Engineering Manager to lead the team that designs the core avionics at the heart of every Muon spacecraft - flight computers, power systems and batteries, ADCS controller, and related electronics. Unlike our mission-facing teams, this team is design-focused: architecting, designing, qualifying, and evolving the avionics products that are reused across our satellite platforms and missions.
This is a hands-on management role for a leader with an extensive electrical design background: you'll manage and grow the team while staying deeply engaged technically - driving architecture, reviewing schematics and layouts, and setting the design quality bar.
This position is hybrid and requires working on-site in our San Jose, CA office three days per week.
Responsibilities
- Lead, mentor, and grow the avionics design team along with planning resourcing across concurrent development efforts and hire as the team scales
- Own delivery of Muon's core avionics - flight computers, power systems and batteries, ADCS controllers, and related electronics - from architecture through design, qualification, and production support
- Drive the avionics roadmap: improve performance, reliability, cost, and manufacturability, and maximize standardization and reuse across satellite platforms
- Stay hands-on: contribute to architecture definition, review schematics and layouts, and support bring-up and debug alongside the team
- Set and uphold electrical design standards - design reviews, derating and worst-case analysis, documentation, and ECO/DCO discipline
- Own avionics qualification and test strategies, partnering with Hardware Reliability & Test to ensure consistent qualification across products
- Partner with embedded software, mechanical, thermal, systems, and production teams to ensure successful hardware/software integration and manufacturability
- Invest in developing engineers through coaching, design feedback, and growth planning
Required Qualifications
- 8+ years of experience designing complex, high-reliability electronics that operate in harsh environments (spacecraft, aviation, automotive, robotics, or similar)
- 2+ years managing or technically leading engineering teams
- Extensive hands-on electrical design experience: architecture, schematic capture, PCB layout, and board bring-up for complex mixed-signal systems
- Deep understanding across avionics domains: embedded processing, power conversion and distribution, battery systems, and control electronics
- Experience taking boards from concept through qualification and production
- Strong grasp of hardware/software integration: microcontrollers and common interfaces (UART, SPI, I2C, CAN, Ethernet)
- Excellent leadership, communication, and presentation skills; ability to move fluidly between team leadership and hands-on engineering
- B.S. or higher in Electrical Engineering, Computer Engineering, or related field
Nice-to-have Skills
- Flight heritage - avionics you designed that has successfully operated in space
- Experience designing radiation-tolerant electronics using COTS components
- Experience with power electronics for space applications (batteries, switching converters, load switches)
- Experience with FPGAs, SoCs, or embedded Linux platforms
- EMI/EMC design and test experience
- Test automation and data analysis using Python or similar
Salary
The salary range for this role is $186,000 - $202,000, plus a competitive equity grant and comprehensive benefits package. Final compensation will be determined based on skills, qualifications, experience, and geographic location as assessed during the interview process.
About Muon Space
Founded in 2021, Muon Space is an end-to-end Space Systems Provider that designs, builds, and operates LEO satellite constellations delivering mission-critical data. Our revolutionary, integrated technology stack enables customers to optimize every dimension of their missions for faster time-to-orbit and superior constellation remote sensing performance. Our state-of-the-art facility in the heart of Silicon Valley is optimized for manufacturing spacecraft and rapid, flexible payload integration at scale. From climate monitoring to national security, Muon Space is dedicated to delivering Earth Intelligence for a safer and more resilient world.
Taking Care of Our Team
At Muon salary is only part of our total compensation package. In addition to salary, full-time employees receive equity compensation as well as benefits including medical, dental, and vision insurance, a 401k retirement plan, short & long term disability and life insurance. We also offer three weeks paid vacation for new employees, along with 12 paid holidays, unlimited sick time and paid parental leave.
Our mission embraces the entire planet and we believe our team should too. Muon is dedicated to creating a diverse and dynamic company and workforce. We believe in equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, age, national origin, citizenship, sexual orientation, marital status, disability, or gender identity. We value diversity in the workplace, and that starts with our applicants. We encourage you to apply, even if you don't check all the boxes, and we look forward to reviewing your application! In addition, if you need a reasonable accommodation as part of your application for employment or interviews with us, please let us know.
ITAR/EAR Requirements
This position requires access to export controlled information. To conform to U.S. Government export regulations applicable to that information, applicant must either be (A) a U.S. person, defined as a (i) U.S. citizen or national, (ii) U.S. lawful, permanent resident (green card holder), (iii) refugee under 8 U.S.C. § 1157, or (iv) asylee under 8 U.S.C. § 1158, (B) eligible to access the export controlled information without a required export authorization, or (C) eligible and reasonably likely to obtain the required export authorization from the applicable U.S. government agency. The Company may, for legitimate business reasons, decline to pursue any export licensing process.